In no country is that more apparent than in the United Kingdom, where bitcoin and bitcoin-associated businesses have flourished of late – including payment services, exchanges, mining pools, and start-ups. Retailers accepting bitcoin in the UK are everywhere.

This is problematic for the European Union (EU), as Mr. Chee notes, “Britain’s withdrawal from the EU has added urgency to [dealing with such competition] because more than 80 percent of [the European Union’s] fintech market is based in Britain.”

In an online fact sheet, the Commission stated it “has concerns that the companies involved and/or the associations representing them may have engaged in anti-competitive practices in breach of EU antitrust rules.”

At the time of writing, “the companies” were not named, but Dutch and Polish banking institutions have confirmed being investigated.

Though still only allegations, the Commission goes on, “anti-competitive practices are aimed at excluding non-bank owned providers of financial services by preventing them from gaining access to bank customers’ account data, despite the fact that the respective customers have given their consent to such access” in violation of several statutes.

News.Bitcoin.com searched Dutch Banking Association (NVB) and Polish Banking Association (ZPG) websites for their respective positions on bitcoin. NVB yielded zero public statements, while ZPG’s lone mention is from 2013. Clearly, at least these legacy institutions were/are not ready for what bitcoin and bitcoin-related businesses might mean to their futures.

The Dutch Payments Association published a terse statement, acknowledging being under investigation and how it “will of course fully cooperate with [The Commission] and is confident in the outcome of the investigation.”

Using a familiar line of excuse, ZPG’s Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz told Bloomberg that giving “access to clients’ credentials to third parties requires diligence and we won’t accept any shortcut solutions that would harm the safety of their deposits. For us security is a priority.”

However it all shakes out, bitcoiners are sure to keep fueling a new day for finance around the world.

What do you think? Is a government agency able to enforce competition, or does it just end up picking winners and losers? Does bitcoin even care? Tell us in the comments below!

Images courtesy of: RTE, Fleur de Coin, Digital Trends.

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C. Edward Kelso

C. Edward Kelso has written hundreds of articles as a journalist covering a range of topics from international finance, regulation, to cryptocurrency philosophy, interviews with luminaries, and book reviews.

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